Entry Hall, Ballroom, Other Spaces Completed in Phase Two of Renovation
Cranes and work crews have dominated the landscape around the Anaheim Convention Center for the past two years. But drivers glancing down Convention Way from Harbor Boulevard today get a far different view with the completion of phase two of the Convention Center’s remodel.
Now visitors approaching the Hilton Anaheim and Towers or Anaheim Marriott from Harbor Boulevard are greeted by a tower of glass walls that surround the rotunda lobby of the convention center’s main entrance. The lobby itself is 190 feet high. A dramatic staircase linking the second and third floors offers a view of the rotunda lobby as well as the surrounding area of Anaheim. And the new Anaheim ballroom offers 38,058 square feet of space,the largest single-room ballroom in Orange County (Disneyland Hotel can offer up to 46,000 square feet of contiguous space by combining its ballroom and an exhibit area) and one of the largest in any convention center.
The newly completed area was debuted to the public this month with a day-long celebration and open house, preceded by a private lighting ceremony to christen the new facility the previous evening.
Coaches Are First
One of the first groups to use the newly completed meetings rooms in halls B and C was the Waco, Texas-based American Football Coaches Association. Sandi Atkinson, director of administration for that organization, said her group was sold on using the center when she realized the additional space would enable the group to have more exhibitors, defraying the cost of the hall rental.
Mel Pulliam, director of marketing and development for the association said the group was “well pleased” with the arrangements.
“The center is a magnificent facility and certainly met our needs,” Pulliam said. He said the group was a “little wary” because it was the first time they had used a convention center facility, but everything went smoothly.
“One of the great things the city did was not just build a box out there. It’s a great job of architecture,” he said. “This probably spoiled us for when we have to go to other centers.”
Phase three, a rebuild of hall A,which with the arena is the oldest portion of the center and the one that houses offices for the Visitor and Convention Bureau,is under way, and has staff scrambling for space.
“Some people have moved to new offices already, but some don’t have offices and have to wander around looking for a free office,” said Elaine Cali, director of communications for the VCB.
But dealing with bulldozers and construction crews hasn’t deterred the seven-member staff from booking convention business.
At the end of December, 315 groups had been booked for 2000, with a projected attendance of 846,601, compared with 202 groups booked at the end of 1998 for last year. As of January 1999, only 45% of the groups that ultimately came to OC in 1999 had been booked. So with at least 10 booking months to go for 2000, and projected attendance already approaching 850,000, the county could conceivably reach the 1 million mark in attendance this year.
That would be OC’s largest total convention attendance since 1997, the year before the remodel began, when 979,259 people came to OC for meetings. In 1998, attendance fell to just 750,698, but rebounded a bit last year, during the heart of the center’s renovation, to 767,689 attendees at 444 events in OC. The last time the center went over the 1 million mark was in 1994.
There are already 20 groups of 10,000 or more booked for this year, the same as all of 1999, and another 20 of that size already booked for 2001. (A total of 96 groups had been booked for 2001 as of last week.) The National Association of Music Merchants and its 55,000 delegates,which left Anaheim two years ago when it outgrew the space available then,will be among the returnees, as will the California Cable Television Association’s Western show, which draws 21,000 to the area. The World Stamp Expo will bring 125,000 delegates to the area this summer.
Among the biggest industry shows the VCB has landed for Anaheim are La Cumbre, the Latin American travel trade show with an expected attendance of 1,700, and Carlson Leisure Group, which will bring more than 1,000 delegates to Anaheim next fall.
Larger Increase Seen
Though all of this points to increased optimism for OC’s meetings business, it’s just the beginning. Tourism officials expect meetings and convention business to increase by as much as 25% once the renovation is complete.
In order to fill the more than 1.4 million square feet of space at the new Convention Center and get a bigger share of the meetings pie for Orange County, the VCB has been targeting new types of business. That includes the corporate market and association business, as well as major travel industry shows like LaCumbre that, by virtue of their presence, bring additional business to an area.
It appears the timing is right.
Association business in general is on the rise, according to a survey of 241 members of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) by Convene magazine. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents said 1999 attendance at their events either remained the same as 1998 or increased, the sixth straight year of growth. This growth has also resulted in bigger association meeting budgets.
Meanwhile, a study by Successful Meetings magazine using U.S. Department of Commerce data showed that 117,510 companies conduct an average of 10 meetings per year, spending an average of $35,125 per meeting.
And in a survey of 500 Successful Meetings subscribers, 78% said proximity of hotels is an important factor in choosing a convention facility, while 45% said the amount of meeting space available is of prime importance.
With more than 2,000 hotel rooms within walking distance of the Convention Center, and the new space that puts it among the nation’s elite, Anaheim should be well-positioned to attract bigger fish to the local market.
The convention center’s remake is the 33-year-old facility’s fifth and was undertaken when studies revealed Anaheim could lose up to 60% of its convention business without the expansion. When complete, the renovated Convention Center will contain 815,000 square feet of exhibition space and 130,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space on the second and third levels alone. Though there were 20 convention facilities under construction or renovation across the country last year, only one other,the World Expo Center in Kissimmee, Fla.,will have more exhibit space than Anaheim when complete.
